Considerable resources are directed to product and/or service promotions, whether at the point-of-sale, or remotely, such as via a targeted advertisement, e.g., a mailer, magazine, etc. As a threshold matter, merchandise and/or product labeling, marking, and packaging are critical initial and ongoing considerations. Arguably, naming, visual identity creation, branding and cross-branding are essential ingredients for strong marketplace differentiation intended to influence the purchasing behavior of consumers.
A variety of well-known point-of-purchase and promotional products are available. For instance, vehicles for advertising and promoting products, grabbing the attention of consumers, and/or prompting impulse or first time purchases include, but are hardly limited to, static clings, tent cards, shelf talkers, hanging mobiles, bottle neckers, hanging tags, instant redeemable coupons, etc.
Marketplace transactions themselves, namely, the interaction between consumers and the sellers of goods and services, have been and continue to be influenced by promotional strategies and trends, and generally reflect, for example, technological advances. Heretofore unknown levels of interaction are enabled and in practice, whether at a point-of-sale or purchase, or as is increasingly the case, in advance of the point-of-sale, or in follow-on or subsequent thereto. The “reach” of, for example, the manufacturers of consumer packaged goods, is advancing and increasing via the use of promotional sheet products, e.g., including but not limited to, point-of-purchase promotional articles and/or devices, mailers, coupon redemption cards, consumer cards, and card display packages and the like.
It is generally appreciated that within the realm of promotional sheet products there exists a tension between general utility on the one hand (e.g., a message conveyance functionality), and a specific or transactional utility on the other hand (e.g., an information or data conveyance functionality in furtherance of the relationship between the “buyer” and “seller”). Heretofore known promotional sheet product approaches have generally emphasized a single aspect of functionality, e.g., general functionality as exhibited by point-of-purchase articles such as static clings, tent cards, shelf talkers, hanging mobiles, bottle neckers, hanging tags, instant redeemable coupons, or specific functionality as exhibited by consumer cards and the like.
Consumer cards are ubiquitous in the marketplace. Without limitation, credit and debit cards, credit cards, promotional cards, stored value cards, phone cards, gift cards, membership cards, swipe cards, loyalty cards, frequent buyer cards, club cards, key cards, identification cards, etc. are well known and widely used.
Emanating from a variety of merchant credit schemes, credit cards are alleged to have origins in “Looking Backward,” an 1887 utopian novel by Edward Bellamy, with uses in the U.S. dating back at least to the 1920s (see e.g., Des. 76,525 (H. W. Cook) entitled “Credit Card”). Beyond the arguably mundane articles of the 1960s (see e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,069,793 (D. L. Francescon)), the design of the card itself has become a major selling point vis-a-vis co-branded and affinity cards. Current/recent efforts appear to focus upon, among other things, card security (see e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 7,128,274 B2 (Kelley et al.) and U.S. Pub. No. US 2007/0057037 A1 (Woronec)).
As is well known, consumer cards may include a variety of different indicia to identify the card, the individual using the card, the transaction account, and/or other features or characteristics such as one or more of visible, revealable, and/or machine readable information or data fields, areas or portions. Often times, card or product indicia may include a string of alpha numeric characters, a bar code, and/or an encoded magnetic strip attached to the card. Heretofore, such transaction cards have been limited in their construction to plastic and/or synthetic materials such as PVC, PET, PETG, ABS, etc., with ISO specifications, i.e., ISO 7810, adopted for such cards. Needless to say, such traditional, heretofore known formats for transaction cards are an inherent constraint relative to content, quality, features, character, etc. vis-a-vis manufacturing process limitations.
In furtherance of the best-of-both-worlds synergy in and for promotional sheet products, a variety of well and lesser known approaches have been documented. On the one hand, the following general approaches are noted: credit/service cards having an expanded surface area (U.S. Pat. No. 5,308,121 (Gunn)); coupon redemption cards and assemblies (U.S. Pat. No. 5,417,458 (Best et al.)); sheet product mailers (U.S. Pat. No. 6,769,718 B1 (Warther et al.)); and, magnetic promotional sheet article (U.S. Pat. No. 6,773,181 B2 (Crum)), each of which is incorporated herein by reference. On the other hand, the following specific approaches, namely, card display packages, are noted: U.S. Pat. No. 5,918,909 (Fiala et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,921,584 (Goade, Sr.); U.S. Pat. No. 6,588,658 B1 (Blank); U.S. Pat. No. 7,000,844 B1 (Smith); U.S. Pat. No. 7,063,255 B2 (Algiene); and, U.S. Pub. No. US 2004/0074128 A1 (Best et. al.), each of which is likewise incorporated herein by reference.
Although there exists a diversity for and in promotional sheet products as evidenced at least in part by the afore presented teachings, there nonetheless remains a need for a versatile promotional sheet product. Among other things, it is believed advantageous to provide a promotional sheet product characterized by ease of manufacture while nonetheless possessing a variety of select desirable features, alone or in combination, such as, without limitation, source indicia, graphics, promotional messages, visible, revealable, and/or machine readable information or data, etc. Furthermore, it is believed advantageous to provide a non-rigid promotional sheet product which retains the general functionality of heretofore known rigid promotional sheet products, more particularly, and for example, heretofore known transaction cards and related card display packages. Further still, it is believed advantageous to provide a promotional sheet product manufactured from a single sheet or web, and more particularly, a promotional sheet product which includes alone or in combination, visible, revealable, and/or machine readable information or data, and more particularly still, removable means for selectively viewing a hidden data field, and/or one which is readily adapted to receive/retain a machine-readable data storage article or the like.